Dion Diamond: Reflections on 60 Years of Civil Rights Activism

In the photo above, taken in the summer of 1960, a young black man sits at a lunch counter in Arlington, Virginia. Two of his fellow protesters sit behind him, and a group of white men surrounds them. A white child sticks a finger in the man’s face. He smirks.

This man is a civil rights activist you probably haven’t heard of. His name is Dion Diamond.

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Dion was a bit of a prankster, and spent much of his youth trying to, as he put it, “crash segregated society.”

In another 1960 photo, white protesters picket the integration of a Maryland amusement park. At the end of the line, you can see Dion smiling in defiance as he holds a sign of his own.

Later, as a student activist at Howard University, he appears unbothered while sitting at a lunch counter in the face of members of the American Nazi Party.

At the age of 76, Dion came to StoryCorps to talk about how he got started.

Top photo: Dion Diamond at a sit-in at a “white only” lunch counter in Arlington, VA where a young boy points a finger in his face. From the DC Public Library’s Star Collection, ⓒ The Washington Post.

Second photo: Dion Diamond smiles as he marches past a group of white protesters at Glen Echo Park in Glen Echo, MD in 1960. From the DC Public Library’s Star Collection, ⓒ The Washington Post.

Third photo: Dion Diamond confronted by George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, at a “whites-only” lunch counter in Arlington, VA in 1960. From the DC Public Library’s Star Collection, ⓒ The Washington Post.

Bottom photo: Dion Diamond at his StoryCorps interview in Washington, D.C. on January 8, 2018. By Jen Newman for NPR.

Originally aired January 12, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

A False Witness and the Man He Put in Prison for Decades

On May 19, 1975, a money-order salesman named Harold Franks was murdered during a robbery at a small grocery store in Cleveland.

That’s when the lives of Rickey Jackson and Eddie Vernon became forever entwined.

They grew up in the same neighborhood: Eddie was the paperboy for Rickey’s family, and friends with Rickey’s younger brother. At the time of the murder, Rickey was 18 and Eddie was 12.

After hearing gunshots while coming home on the school bus, one of Eddie’s classmates told him Rickey was involved in Frank’s murder. Eddie  told the police and then became the main witness in the case against Rickey, even though Eddie hadn’t actually witnessed the murder. Eddie testified in trial because, he says, police pressured him to lie and threatened his family.

Rickey was convicted of the murder, along with two friends Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman. Rickey served nearly four decades in prison, turning down chances for parole because he maintained his innocence.

He remained there until 2014, when Eddie, at the age of 52, came forward with the truth. This information led to Rickey’s release and cleared the convictions of the Bridgeman brothers. The murder of Harold Franks remains unsolved.

After his release, Rickey reached out to Eddie and met with him. Three years later, they sat down for StoryCorps to have their first in-depth conversation about what happened.

Photo: Rickey Jackson (left) and Eddie Vernon at their StoryCorps interview in Cleveland. 

Originally aired January 5, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

William Lynn Weaver

Dr. William Lynn Weaver grew up during the 1950s and 1960s in Mechanicsville, a black working-class neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In 1964, he was one of 14 black teens who integrated West High School. He told that story in two other StoryCorps segments here and here.

After graduation, Weaver went on to study at Howard University. This story took place when he came home during his freshman year for Christmas break.

Dr. William Lynn Weaver died in May 2019.

Originally aired December 15, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Bottom photo: Dr. William Lynn Weaver with his younger brother, Wayne, in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1963. Courtesy of the Weaver family.

Ronald Clark and Jamilah Clark

During the 1940s, custodians who worked for the New York Public Library often lived inside the buildings they tended. In exchange for cleaning and keeping the building secure at night, the library provided an apartment for the custodians and their families.

Ronald Clark’s father, Raymond, was one of those custodians. For three decades he lived with his family on the top floor of the Washington Heights branch on St. Nicholas Avenue in upper Manhattan. Three generations of the Clark family resided in that library until Ronald’s father retired in the late 1970s.

After college, Ronald got a position as a professor teaching history at Cape Cod Community College.

At StoryCorps, Ronald told his daughter, Jamilah Clark, how living inside the library shaped the man he would become.

Originally aired October 13, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition and re-broadcast on February 22, 2019.

Bottom photo: Ronald Clark, his parents, and his daughter Jamilah. Credit: Clark family, courtesy of NYPL.

Johnny Holmes and Christian Picciolini

In the 1990s, Johnny Holmes was head of security at a high school in Blue Island, Illinois, located just outside of Chicago, where he met Christian Picciolini, a teenage student who was the leader of a local neo-Nazi group.

Christian was involved for eight years before he renounced the movement’s racist principles. Today, he devotes himself to helping others leave hate groups.

He credits Johnny with being the person who helped turn him around. Christian and Johnny came to StoryCorps to remember how it happened.

Christian founded EXIT Solutions, a global organization of former extremists with a mission to help people to leave hateful and violent ideologies.

Johnny now serves on his local school board.

Editor’s note: This story contains a quote where a racial slur is used.

Originally aired October 6, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Bottom photo: Johnny Holmes from the 1987 issue of the Eisenhower High School yearbook, Crest. Photo courtesy Johnny Holmes.

William Lynn Weaver

In 1964, Dr. William Lynn Weaver was one of 14 black teens who integrated West High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. At StoryCorps, he spoke about his experiences in the classroom and how difficult it was for him to get a quality education there.

Dr. William Lynn Weaver died in May 2019.

Originally aired September 29, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Top photo: Dr. William Lynn Weaver as a member of the West High School Rebels during his senior year in 1967. From the 1967 West High School Yearbook.
Bottom photo: Dr. William Lynn Weaver at his StoryCorps interview in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 

William Lynn Weaver

You may recall the voice of Dr. William Lynn Weaver from a StoryCorps interview he did back in 2007, where he talked about his father, Ted Weaver — the most important man in his life.

He later came back to StoryCorps to remember someone else who had a huge influence on him: his 7th grade science teacher, Mr. Edward O. Hill.

In the fall of 1964, Weaver was 14 years old and about to start his sophomore year of high school in Knoxville, Tennessee, when, along with 13 other black students, he integrated previously all-white West High School.

At StoryCorps, he talks about what happened on his first day at West High.

Originally aired August 25, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Bottom photo: Mr. Edward O. Hill, who taught Dr. Weaver in junior high school. Photo courtesy of Rogers Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Weaver went on to become a surgeon, most recently working as Chief of Surgery at the Fayetteville, North Carolina VA Medical Center.

Francine Anderson

Francine Anderson grew up in rural Virginia during the 1950s. It was the Jim Crow South and “Whites Only” signs punctuated the windows of many businesses. Francine came to StoryCorps to talk about one night when she became aware of what those signs meant for her family.

Editor’s note: This story contains a quote where a racial slur is used.

Originally aired August 18, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Left photo: Francine’s father, Frank Napoleon Anderson. Photo courtesy of Francine Anderson.
Right photo: From left to right, siblings Frank, Lynne, baby Ife, Francine and Tony Anderson, shortly after the incident took place. Photo courtesy of Francine Anderson.

Sylvia Bullock and Marcus Bullock

In the mid-1990s, Reverend Sylvia Bullock was raising two kids on her own near Washington, D.C. while working and going to college full-time.

Her teenage son, Marcus, saw how hard his mother was working — and how little they had — and decided to take matters into his own hands. He and a friend committed a carjacking, and although he was 15 years old, Marcus was tried as an adult. He served eight years for the crime.

Marcus was released in 2004. Since then he has created an app, called Flikshop, that makes it easier for inmates and their families to stay in touch. His mom works for his tech company as Fulfillment Manager and Mom-In-Chief. She received her Doctor of Ministry in 2008.

Originally aired August 11, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Top photo: Marcus and Sylvia in 2017.
Bottom photo: A Polaroid from one of Sylvia’s visits to Marcus while he was in prison. Courtesy of Sylvia Bullock.

Five Mualimm-ak and Omar Mualimmak

StoryCorps gives people the chance to sit down together and have a conversation they’ve never had before. Five Mualimm-ak did just that with his son, Omar, who was five years old when his father was first incarcerated.

By the time Five Mualimm-ak was finished serving his sentence for weapons charges, he had been in prison for nearly a dozen years, many of those spent in solitary confinement. When he was released in 2012, Omar was a senior in high school. The two have had difficulty connecting since then. They came to StoryCorps together to talk about their relationship for the first time.

Originally aired July 7, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.